To Another World... with Land Mines! Volume 11 (eBook)

Itsuki Mizuho (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-8817-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Nao and his friends escort Illias back to Pining, but they hardly get a chance to rest and recover before they're swept up into the investigation of a series of kidnappings. With hard work and a little luck, they quickly crack the case and apprehend an unexpected culprit. As a reward, they're granted the rights to the land around the dungeon they discovered, and they pass their time comfortably: exploring the dungeon, rock climbing, mushroom foraging, and throwing a flower-viewing party. But nothing can remain the same forever, and soon, under the enchanting moonlight, Nao finally musters the courage to confess his true feelings to Haruka.

Textauszug

Chapter 1—Incident Investigation

The escort quest had taken us almost a month, but now we’d finally completed it and returned to Pining. Viscount Nernas had told us that we could rest at his mansion if we so desired, and we’d taken him up on that offer. It would honestly have been more relaxing to rent some rooms at an inn, but we’d stayed at the mansion once before while preparing to leave for the wedding, and the viscount himself had told us that this would save him the trouble of asking us to drop by again in the future, so we really couldn’t say no.

We all got a good night’s sleep. The viscount allowed us ample time to rest and recover; it was the afternoon of the next day before he sent his butler, Wiesel-san, to check on us.

Wiesel-san led us to a room where Viscount Nernas, Illias-sama, and Arlene-san were waiting for us. At the viscount’s behest, we sat down on the sofa in front of them.

Viscount Nernas looked directly at me. “First of all, I would like to thank your party for escorting my daughter to and from the wedding,” he said. “I am deeply grateful that you fended off those would-be assassins.”

The viscount bowed his head, and Illias-sama politely voiced her gratitude as well. “Thank you very much. There can be no doubt that you saved my life.”

But I shook my head lightly. “We were just doing our duty as bodyguards.”

The assailants had been much stronger than we’d expected, but the viscount couldn’t be faulted for failing to prepare us; he couldn’t have anticipated that outcome. And as I’d said, we’d been hired as bodyguards, so we could hardly complain. It would have been preferable if the viscount had taken extra time to prepare and assigned additional troops to protect his daughter, but a noble house that could afford to take such measures wouldn’t have needed to hire adventurers like us in the first place.

“Ekart told me the tale of your valiant deeds,” said Nernas. “Alone, our household troops would likely have failed to protect Illias. In the end, our present personnel shortage became an unexpected boon. I suppose your party hardly benefited, however.”

“We’re just glad that we didn’t have too much trouble protecting Illias-sama,” I said.

I did feel an urge to complain about my party’s bad luck, but I swallowed it and forced myself to smile instead. Illias-sama smiled shyly back at me, and the viscount chuckled.

“You accepted my urgent plea for your help and performed to the best of your abilities,” said Nernas. “You have rendered the House of Nernas a great service, and so you will be greatly rewarded in addition to the agreed upon fee.”

“Thank you very much, sir,” I said.

Haruka and I had actually already received part of the reward the viscount was referring to—namely, the formal clothes we’d worn at the wedding. They could have been sold, but they had been tailored specifically for the two of us, so the viscount must’ve decided they were more suitable as a gift.

“Under ordinary circumstances, our business would now be concluded, but there is one more quest which I wish your party to take on,” said Nernas. “In addition, I fear there is something that I must apologize for.”

More work already, and just when I’d been relieved that our job was done. The viscount’s phrasing gave me a bad feeling, and I glanced around at the others. Illias-sama hadn’t visibly reacted, but that might have been simply because her father hadn’t forewarned her of whatever he was going to tell us. Wiesel-san was, of course, a consummate professional, so I didn’t detect any telltale signs of emotion on his face, and Arlene-san just smiled back at me. What I really wanted was to flee the room before I heard another word, but that obviously wasn’t an option. When I took another glance at my companions, they simply nodded back at me with stony faces, so I sighed internally, then turned my gaze toward the viscount once more.

“...Please carry on, sir.”

“Mm,” said Nernas. “Perhaps you and your companions have already heard tell of the recent kidnappings—women disappearing from the very streets of Pining.”

“Kidnappings?” I said. “Oh, Haruka, do you think this is related to the rumors of people going missing that Diola-san told us about a while back?”

“So I assume,” said Haruka. “Diola-san sounded confident that we would be safe, but she warned us to be mindful of Metea and Mary.”

I looked to the viscount for confirmation, and he nodded before continuing, “As far as I’m aware, the victims are, thus far, few in number—probably fewer than ten people total. As a result, the incidents went undiscovered for some time, and it has been quite difficult to learn anything more.”

“I see.”

If the people who’d gone missing were adventurers, their disappearances wouldn’t have been considered worthy of investigation. Unfortunately, it was all too common for adventurers to leave town on a quest and never return, and even if they were simply moving to another town, there was rarely a reason for them to announce it in advance. With all of that in mind, the women who’d gone missing must’ve been citizens of Pining who paid the head tax.

Still, death was a close neighbor in this world. If the number of victims hadn’t even reached the double digits yet, it seemed a bit odd for a lord to take action. Did someone important get kidnapped?

“I wish for your party to investigate the kidnappings and locate the missing women,” said Nernas. “And, if possible, I would like for you to bring the kidnappers to justice.”

“Um, based on what you’ve told us so far, it sounds like local troops have already done their own investigation, right?” I asked. “We’re not exactly experts at solving mysteries, sir, so I’m not sure how far we’ll get...”

My party had cooperated with the viscountial troops during the incident in Kelg, but they’d been counting on our combat fitness as adventurers. Investigating incidents like this was completely outside of our area of expertise; we’d fare no better than the average amateur sleuth. Even including Mary and Metea, there were only seven of us, and none of us were familiar with Pining, so it wouldn’t be safe for us to split up and cover more ground. With all of that in mind, I doubted we’d be able to contribute much at all.

But the viscount just nodded with a frown on his face. “I quite understand. But we remain short of personnel. The shortage will be alleviated somewhat when Ekart and the other soldiers who accompanied you to the wedding have returned to active duty, but they will hardly be sufficient either. And furthermore, this matter relates to the other I alluded to—the matter in which I must beg your forgiveness.” He fell silent for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth. “Saint Satomi has escaped.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Touya exclaimed. “O-Oh, um, sorry, milord...”

I couldn’t really blame him for accidentally blurting out his true feelings. The rest of us had managed to contain ourselves for the most part, but we still stared at one another in shock.

“Mm. Your reaction is perfectly natural. It was, after all, your party that captured her,” said Nernas. “It seems she took advantage of the fact that so many of our soldiers were away from the viscountial capital, escorting Illias. I am truly sorry.”

This revelation had caught us completely off guard, so we lowered our voices for a short conference.

“I bet she wants revenge on us,” I whispered.

“You mean me, right?” Touya whispered back. “I’m the one who punched her in the stomach.”

“Perhaps we should have finished her off to spare ourselves the future trouble,” said Haruka.

That sentiment spooked me, but Haruka wasn’t completely wrong. Still, up to this point, we hadn’t felt emotionally capable of killing former classmates—with the exception of those like Iwanaka and his buddies who attacked us directly. So she managed to escape before she got executed, huh? I figured as much from Arlene-san’s reaction back when Touya asked about Satomi...

“I took action the moment I learned of her escape, but it is all too likely she has already left Pining behind,” said Nernas.

During the chaos in Kelg, the viscount had planned for various contingencies and posted soldiers at the gates to prevent members of the Holy Satomi Sect from escaping. However, no one had ever imagined she could escape from prison, so her jailers hadn’t been on high alert. According to the viscount, the guards at the city gates checked adventurer cards and collected the toll from people trying to enter Pining, but people who wanted to leave town were usually ignored if they weren’t exceptionally suspicious. Satomi had probably left immediately after breaking out of prison; she must’ve been aware that it would quickly become impossible for her to get out of town.

“How did she manage to escape?” I asked. “Does she have some power to charm people?”

“Nothing quite so powerful,” Nernas replied. “She can undoubtedly manipulate others with ease, but it seems she can’t deceive those who are wary of her. But that very fact means there is no satisfactory explanation for her escape.”

It was good news that Satomi wasn’t powerful enough to charm people, but...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.10.2025
• Reihe/Serie: To Another World... with Land Mines!
• Illustrationen: Itsuki Mizuho
• Übersetzer: Itsuki Mizuho
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: childhood friend • Game elements • Isekai • Light Novel • Magic • Reincarnation • Survival
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-8817-9 / 1718388179
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-8817-8 / 9781718388178